Artificial
by SereneBird
Summary: After being rejected by a SeaWing that he fell in love with, a NightWing animus decides to take things into his own hands and carve a wooden statue to be his daughter. The little statue comes to life and is named Silverside upon her first awakening, but one question still needs to be answered for her: to what extent is a living being?
1. Prologue

The first thing that she took in was _light_.

Well, truthfully, there wasn't very much of it. The room that she was in was only dimly lit, with the only source of light being a small candle on a smooth wooden table against the wall. There wasn't much to the room, but she can tell that it was very _messy_. There were scrolls scattered on the floor. Some were unrolled, and some were not.

There was a bed in the corner of the room. The sheets were untidy and it looks as though the dragon who slept in it had been shuffling around restlessly for quite a while. There was also a mirror propped up against the wall, and that was perhaps the only thing that wasn't messy or damaged in this room.

This entire room looked as if the dragon who used it didn't even think much to look after it. It was hard to believe that the room was clean once, if it ever had been.

Finally, she laid her eyes on the dragon in the room with her. His scales were as black as the midnight sky and his eyes looked to be dark gray. He was hunched over as he stood and his face was narrow with sharp features. He also towered over her, and his sharp gray eyes looked down at her. Almost immediately, she could tell who this dragon was.

"Diligence. You...you are my...fa-fa-father," she spoke. She realized that her voice was high-pitched and it had a slight echo to it, but she paid no mind to it. That was her _voice_. The sound produced in her larynx. Something that she can use to express the words she wanted to say. _That was_ my _voice._

"Silverside."

She looked up at Diligence. _Silverside._ That was her name. _It's pretty—pretty—pretty._

"Yes?" Silverside asked. "Was...was...was there anything that you wanted from me?"

The words came to her at a slow pace. It wasn't the most fantastic feeling, having to wait for a moment to figure out what she wanted to say. But it wasn't the worst feeling in the world either. She was still able to get the words out of her mouth, wasn't she?

"Come here," he answered simply. He turned his back to her and began to move, and Silverside started to follow after him.

It kind of hurt for her to walk. All of her movements felt so stiff and rigid, and she would be lying if she said that it was completely comfortable for her to walk. _Maybe I should tell—tell him._

"Father," Silverside spoke after her father had walked no less than five steps. He stopped and looked back at her. "Moving i-i-is... _uncomfortable_ for me." She looked up at him, waiting patiently for his response.

"So?" her father answered. He looked away from her and continued on his way. "I'm sure that you'll get used to it sometime soon."

Well, _that_ certainly ended up well. But Silverside was still sure that he cared about her in some way. He was her father, after all. He loved her with all of his heart, and that was something that she would always be certain about.

 _Love_. That was a word that just simply appealed to Silverside. It wasn't really something that Silverside could easily define, but she definitely knew that it meant something... _positive_. She knew that it was something that she wanted to feel for the rest of her life. And she certainly felt a lot of it for her father.

So she decided not to argue with him. Even when she wanted to complain, Silverside kept quiet about it. It wouldn't do either of them much good if she chose to cause him any kind of stress. She certainly didn't want her father to be frustrated or angry or any of that. What she _did_ want was for him to be happy with her, and that can't happen if she expressed her doubts to him.

In no time at all, Silverside found herself standing in front of the mirror. She blinked at the dragon that she saw in the mirror. _That's—that's—that's me._ Her scales were a dark shade of blue with a purple hint to it, and her eyes were the same steely gray as her father's. Little black freckles dotted the space beneath her eyes and right next to them were vivid blue stripes. There were even blue markings against the stark white of the undersides of her stomach and tail. She lit them up, but they only emitted a dim light.

There were purple fins sprouting out of the center of her head and going down, connected to the sharp black spikes that rose up from the top of her body. The fin stopped halfway down her neck, and from there it was just black spikes trailing down and down her body, stopping at the tip of her tail. Right between the gap of one of these spikes was a pink bow at the base of her tail.

She lifted up one of her wings and found that the undersides were pale blue, dotted by silver scales. She let out a breath at how pretty it looked before lowering her wing and looking at the silver necklace around her neck. It was wide and thick to the point where it was more like a metal band around her neck than a necklace. Right in the center of it was a circular amethyst stone.

Silverside lifted one of her talons, going to touch the necklace.

"Don't touch that," said Diligence abruptly, and then Silverside put her talon down. She turned her head to glance at him.

"Why not?" Silverside asked curiously. "What's wrong—wrong—wrong with it? Is it...is it...is it... _b-bad?_ W-Why a-am I wearing it?"

Diligence grimaced while she spoke. Silverside tilted her head at him, but didn't say anything more.

"Silverside, do you have _any_ understanding of what you are?" he asked her.

She thought for a moment, but no answer came to her. Only small thoughts came to her in little chunks, mainly about the fact that she couldn't quite remember hatching out of an egg or ever growing up or anything like that. All that she remembered was that she woke up in this room, and that was about it.

The NightWing sighed. "Okay," he said. "Silverside, you are a _statue_. A statue that _I_ enchanted to come to life. Do you understand what I'm saying so far?"

Silverside blinked at him, slowly connecting his words together. Then she nodded.

"Good," he said. Joy began to bubble up in Silverside's chest. He said _good_. He thought that it was good that she nodded! _Should I do—do—do it more often?_ she wondered. Silverside was only _almost_ sure, but being able to get a sign of approval from her father made it feel as if her chest was about to explode with happiness.

"The necklace that you are wearing is the one thing that gives you life," Diligence continued. He tapped his claw against the amethyst stone on the necklace before taking his claw away. "Don't take it off, or else you'll lose your life," he warned. "You'll turn back into a statue."

"Okay—kay—kay," Silverside responded, nodding. "And w-what about the bow around my tail?" she asked. She looked back to the pink bow wrapped around the base of her tail. "W-Why is it pink? Does it have any importance?"

Diligence shook his head. "That is simply there for decoration," he answered.

"Oh," said Silverside. She shifted her front talons awkwardly, trying to ignore the discomfort that she was feeling just by moving. "Okay, then."

Silverside slowly took in his words. So she didn't hatch out of an egg after all. But does that matter? Maybe it doesn't. Hopefully it doesn't. Already she could feel worms wriggling around in her stomach. What would it mean for her if it _did_ matter whether or not she hatched out of an egg?

She shook off those anxieties and focused on the face of her father. "W-Where do I sleep?" she inquired. "When do—do I eat?"

Diligence rolled his eyes. "You don't _need_ to eat or sleep," he snorted. "Those are for _real_ beings only."

For some reason, that made Silverside deflate a little bit. Did she not count as a 'real' dragon to him? She existed, didn't she? But if her father considered her to not be one, then she might as well follow his train of thought.

"Under...understood," she said. "But...do I still have a—a—a room to stay in?" she questioned.

"Sure, sure," Diligence answered. He turned Silverside away from the mirror, and once again she tried not to feel too bothered by how weird her movements felt for her. His claws scraped harmlessly against her wooden scales, which felt little like his own, _real_ scales.

Then Diligence walked past her and went out of the room.

Without trying to think too much of it, Silverside followed after him.


	2. Chapter One

The next of her years was relatively uneventful, though Silverside tried not to think too much about it. It was still a simple, comfortable life, and her father told her that it's something that she should be grateful for. So she was. Or at least, she tried to be.

Silverside couldn't deny that she felt restrained and cooped up inside of the house that she and her father lived in. In fact, she doesn't think that she's ever been outside before. Diligence told her to stay inside her own little room and only come out whenever he told her to.

She was at least grateful that her room wasn't so bad. It was small, but it provided enough space for her to be comfortable. There wasn't anything like a bed inside of it. Of course, that was because she didn't _need_ one. However, there was a chest sitting in the corner of the room that she used to store whatever items that she didn't need to use at that moment. There were a couple of scroll racks laying against the wall with plenty of scrolls filling up the empty spaces. Finally, there was a wooden desk that was covered with a wide assortment of tiny wooden carvings that she made herself.

Silverside understood that it might be considered _weird_ for a living wooden statue to be interested in carving tinier wooden statues. But still, she was curious about the way about her father made her body from wood. She badgered Diligence for days and days until he finally gave in and taught her how to carve wood. The first couple of attempts didn't end up quite so well, but Silverside has gradually been getting better and better. So ever since then, she's been spending much of her time making up little wooden statues. The ones that she was proudest of were sitting on the desk, while all the rest laid in the chest.

Of course, when Silverside wasn't making cute little carvings (at least she _hoped_ they were cute), she was reading scrolls. Diligence brought back plenty of them for her, which was something that Silverside was pleased about. She liked to read scrolls a lot, and she really liked to read the ones about romance.

This was mainly just her inserting herself into the main character's place and thinking, _That's me—me—me!_ It was just an action that brought her a lot of hope and comfort. The thought that one day, she could find love just like the protagonist, was comforting.

However, there was just the one problem that her father said that she _can't_ love other dragons. Silverside said that she felt love for _him_ , but he just shook his head and said no. Diligence told her that she only felt a deep trust and admiration for him, but otherwise, she certainly can't feel anything like _love_.

Silverside wanted to doubt his word. She knew deep down in her nonexistant heart that love was something that she can feel. But then again, Diligence had never been wrong yet. So she bit her false tongue and kept silent.

And while she existed, she had also learned many other things as well. Diligence went out of his way to educate her on certain subjects, such as the tribes of Pyrrhia. He spoke very highly of the NightWings, but that was probably because he was a NightWing himself. Though he didn't sound very fond of Queen Constellation, who was the current queen of the NightWings.

When Silverside asked what hybrid _she_ counted as, Diligence told her that she would be a SeaWing and NightWing hybrid. Silverside thought that that sounded pretty, and she asked why her father would make her that way. Diligence replied that she was just based off of a dragon he used to know, and then continued on with the lesson.

She also learned that dragons grew bigger and older as the years passed. Silverside had noticed that her father continued to grow slightly bigger each year while she was staying the same.

"Why do you grow big?" she queried that night before Diligence was about to go to sleep. "Why can't—can't I grow big?"

"Why does it matter to you?" Diligence asked irritably.

"I want to grow big—big—big, too," Silverside answered.

Diligence rolled his eyes (which was something that he usually did, though Silverside couldn't quite figure out why yet) and told her that it was because dragons just naturally grew bigger as they get older. _She_ couldn't get any older or larger because she wasn't a real dragon, and she'll always be stuck looking like a six-year-old dragonet.

Ignoring the sense of disappointment that Silverside felt at that, she instead tried to focus more on the good things about her home. It was pretty much the only place that she's ever known, and it was small, too. But still, she learned a lot here and she made _plenty_ of good memories, thank you very much. Even if she didn't get to make a lot of them with _other_ dragons.

Whenever another dragon would visit, Diligence would ask her to take off her necklace, and in a certain position with her standing up straight and with her wings tilted as if she was about to take flight. So Silverside did, and then all consciousness stopped for her. She descended into some kind of empty, black space where nothing existed. Not her, not Diligence. Nothing.

Then, after the dragon would leave, Diligence would put the necklace back onto her. Silverside would ignore the feelings of regret for taking off her necklace and not being able to meet another dragon, but at the same time she knew that her father had a reason for it.

She knew that a larger world was going on outside the walls of her home. She could hear other NightWing dragonets playing and flying together, and every day she could also hear a group of them walking past her house and talking about something called school. And she knew that someday, she'll be one of them.

But the fact that Silverside couldn't go outside still lingered in her mind, however. According to Diligence, the reason why that she couldn't go outside yet was because she wasn't _ready_ to start being amongst real dragons.

"H-How am I—I—I not ready?" Silverside had asked him during her second year of existence. "I-I've—been trying—trying really h-hard." The words basically stumbled out of her mouth, but she continued speaking as if nothing odd happened in her speech in the first place.

That was one thing that Diligence kept trying to change about her. He tried to teach her to stop stuttering and repeating words while she spoke, but the habit still remained in her. Silverside felt bad about it, especially when Diligence would shout at her in his frustration. She hated it when her father was upset to the point where he'd yell at her angrily. It upset her, too, when Diligence gave up on trying to teach her. It made her feel awful.

Silverside tried to apologize and make it up to him for her failure. She carved a lot of small wood statues for him. The first one was of a SeaWing, but he threw that one away. The second one was of a bird, but she wasn't quite sure what happened to it after she had given it to him. The third time, she gave him a small carving of his own head.

Diligence says that he still keeps it on his desk to this day.

That was something that brought pleasure to Silverside. She knew that, more often than not, she disappointed him. It wasn't as if Silverside _tried_ to disappoint him. She tried a lot to please him, really. She always put in her best effort in order to make him proud of her, but somehow whatever she does just never ends up working.

Of course, that only just encouraged her to keep working harder. Silverside knew that she was lucky to have a father who motivated her to always work hard and put her best effort into things. Even if it didn't work out in the end, who was she to complain when she could always try harder the next time?

So Silverside decided to take it a step further.

"I w-want a journal!" Silverside said when her father came into her room that morning. Diligence stopped while he was retrieving a scroll from the scroll racks and stared at her in disbelief.

"What would you need a journal for?" he asked, narrowing his eyes. Silverside lifted her chin up at him and put on her most dazzling smile.

"To w-w-write things down!" she answered. "I want to learn how to be a _real_ dr-dr-dragon!" Silverside heard of taking notes before. She knew that if she wanted to take long, extensive notes, then she was going to need a journal. She also knew that she wanted to write about the feelings and relationships of other dragons and how they worked. It was a good way to start, at least.

"You don't _need_ a journal for that," Diligence snorted. "No one can _learn_ how to be a 'real' dragon." He took another scroll out of the scroll rack and then he began to make his way out of the room.

"Can't I have it a-anyway?" Silverside pleaded. "It would be r-reaaallly good for me."

Her father stopped once more in his tracks and then turned his head to look back at her. "If I give it to you, do you _promise_ to behave?" he asked her.

Silverside nodded vigorously. She couldn't imagine answering in any other way. "O-Of course!" she answered.

So by the next afternoon, Diligence came and got her an empty journal and a black inkwell to work with. "Here," he said after he came into her room. He walked up to the desk, and (much to Silverside's dismay), he raised one arm and swept off a good chunk of her wooden carvings off of the desk and set down the journal and inkwell on the empty space.

The wooden carvings clattered on the floor and Silverside went to go clean them up. As she did so, she kept one ear open to her father to listen to what he was going to say.

"If I see _any_ sign of a mess around here, then I'm taking this journal away and the necklace is coming off for a little bit," Diligence said to her. "Do you understand?"

Silverside nodded, and almost immediately after she did so Diligence left her room, closing the door. Silverside stood up with the bunch of wooden carvings held in one of her arms and she went to the chest. She opened the chest, then dumped the little statues into it. She closed the chest shut and then she went back to her desk.

She dipped her claw into the inkwell and held it over the empty parchment. She decided to leave the first page for her first thoughts about feelings, and then once she was finished writing things down, she could look back here and see how much she learned since then.

Then Silverside wrote down what would be her very first entry:

 _Feelings are weird._


	3. Chapter Two

Needless to say, trying to fill up the pages of her journal with notes proved to be quite frustrating and time-consuming for Silverside. That was what usually happened when you were stuck within a tiny little house, confined to a tiny little room. The only resources that she really had were the scrolls that she had with her.

And even _those_ didn't help her much. The characters tended to use exaggerations which made everything more confusing for Silverside. Not only that, but their actions were confusing as well.

 _G-Gallant_ likes _Dauntless, doesn't he?_ thought Silverside as she read the scroll. She eyed the page with curiosity and confusion. _So—so—so why does he act so mean to her all the time?_ It was something that Silverside wasn't able to comprehend. If he liked her, then shouldn't he be more nice to her?

Still, Silverside attempted to write down as much as she could about whatever she could learn. At least she was able to say that she was making some good progress on her journal. She had almost half of it complete so far, and perhaps by the next year she should be able to finish it.

The thought of it excited her. Finished! What a dream! She was going to be finished and she was going to show it to her father and he would be so impressed with her that he'd let her go outside for the first time ever! Silverside had to stop herself from quivering with excitement at the idea.

Going _outside_. That was probably the one thing that she desired the most. She could go outside and be with other dragons and she was going to love every single bit of it. She already knew what kinds of friends she wanted to make and which kinds of dragons she was going to avoid and try to talk to.

But first, she needed to learn. Silverside still needed to learn on how to be more like a real dragon and that was exactly what she was going to do. She was _determined_ to learn how to be a real dragon. Even if she would never truly be one, she could still be one deep down within her. Couldn't she?

These thoughts coursed through Silverside's mind as she was carving up another small wooden statue, this one of a fish. Her journal was currently safely tucked away within the scroll racks and she was considering going back to it sometime soon.

She knew that she was already doing quite well with completing it, and she could make it even further if she stopped carving and went back to work on the journal right now. But at the same time, Silverside also wanted to finish the wooden carving she was working on.

What a dilemma.

* * *

All progress on both her journal and fish carving ceased by the next couple of weeks after another dragon came to visit. Once again, Silverside had to get in position and her father took off her necklace, removing her consciousness along with it. However, after the necklace came back on and she went to go find her unfinished journal and carving, she realized that she couldn't find them.

In fact, almost all of her little wooden carvings seemed to have disappeared. The ones that she kept on her desk and even the ones in the chest just simply vanished. The claws of anxiety seemed to seize her stomach and twist it here and there before she couldn't bear it anymore and decided to ask her father where they went.

"F-Father!" she called through the door of her room. She sat down, tapping her claws against the floor. She waited anxiously for Diligence and soon, he appeared in the doorway. He looked exasperated, but Silverside ignored it.

"Do you know where my journal and—and—and carvings are?" Silverside stammered. "I-I've been looking for them."

"Oh, those things?" Diligence blinked. "You want to know where they are?"

"Y-Yes," Silverside answered, nodding.

"Right," Diligence said. "For your journal, I threw it away. For your little statues, some of them are on sale while the others share the same fate as your journal."

Feelings of distraught seemed to twist Silverside's chest. "But...but I still want them—them—them," she said to him. He narrowed his eyes at her and she looked down at her talons.

"So what?" Diligence asked her. "You can always replace them when we move into our new home."

That journal was so close to being completed. Silverside had been sincerely hoping to finish it and show it to him, but now she had no chance of that at all. And what about her statues? She spent _years_ building up her collection of them and she loved all of them very much. How could he just throw them away like that?

Then her ears pricked as she realized just what her father had said. "N-New home?" she asked. They were going to move houses? When did he decide that?

"Did I stutter?" Diligence demanded. Silverside refrained herself from flinching at the hardness in her father's tone.

"N-No," Silverside answered. She forced herself to look up and meet her father's gaze. "Why—why—why didn't you tell me?" she asked him.

"I didn't think that you'd be that interested," he said to her.

"Oh, I'm _v-very_ interested!" Silverside promised. She tried to feel happy about the fact that she was going to move. It was certainly going to be something new besides the same old small space that she always knew. She shook off the feelings of dismay she felt at the fate of her journal and statues.

"Fine, then," Diligence sighed. He turned away from her and started on his way out of the room. "Stay here and I'll come back to you once I've finished packing up."

"Packing up?" Silverside asked. "Do—do you need help?"

"No," Diligence said. "I'm pretty sure you wouldn't know the difference between what's important and what's not."

"Well...w-what do I do with the things that _aren't_ important?" Silverside queried. She tried to shake off the hurt feeling that she felt at what her father said. Perhaps he was right and so she should just have faith in his judgment.

"You either put throw them away or put them outside to go on sale," Diligence said.

Almost at once, the wave of disappointment and sadness crashed over her again. Her wooden carvings were out there, waiting for someone to come along and buy them. Those little statues meant everything to her. It made her feel as if there was some great hole in her chest to know that, to her father, they meant nothing.

That was years of hard work right outside. Years of hard work that she'll probably never see again. It was hard for her to know that. She'd been so proud of them…

But her father was right. _I—I c-could make more,_ Silverside reminded herself. So she lifted her chin and smiled as her father headed out of the room. Besides, she was going to move into a new house! _That_ was exciting, wasn't it? It meant a chance for her to expand her knowledge of the world going on outside of these walls.

She couldn't wait.

* * *

Diligence came back into her room by the time the sun started to rise. As soon as Silverside saw him, she eagerly hopped up to him, asking if it was time to go now.

"Yes, yes, it's time to go," Diligence grumbled. He put one talon against her forehead and then pushed her away from him. "But first of all, I need you to get in position so I can take that necklace off of you."

Silverside looked up at him, then back down to her silver necklace. She raised her talon and gently stroked the circular amethyst stone with it. She hesitated. Silverside didn't lift her gaze to meet her father's, keeping her eyes down on her necklace instead. Her stomach twisted with apprehension.

She wasn't very fond of having her necklace being taken off. True, she wouldn't be conscious, which would mean that she wouldn't know what was going on. But any amount of time could pass and during that time, anything could happen. For all Silverside knew, she was probably never going to get her necklace back.

But her father wasn't going to let that happen, was he? She knew that he wouldn't let her be a statue for too long.

Swallowing her nervousness, Silverside stood up straight and she tilted her wings. "Okay—kay—kay! I'm ready!" she said. She beamed at him as his talons stretched forward to remove her necklace.

Then everything stopped existing, and in its place was an empty void.


	4. Chapter Three

Silverside didn't know how much time had passed when the necklace came back to her. Perhaps a day or maybe a couple of weeks, but she still came back seeing an entirely new room.

It was a nice room, and it had a wider space than her old one. A few scroll racks were arranged neatly against one wall, and next to them was a desk. There were a couple of rolled-up scrolls neatly put on it and right in the space of the wall in front of the desk there was a map hung up by nails.

On the other side of a room was another desk, but this one was of darker wood than the other one. On that one, there was jewelry and a couple of sheets of paper on it. On those sheets of paper were detailed sketches of dragons. Standing on opposite corners of the room, were two beds and finally, the room was lit up by a few colorful lit globes hanging from the ceiling.

Overall, this room was rather nice. What Silverside didn't quite expect to see were two dragonets arguing with each other.

"I was only trying to see what it looked like on the statue!" growled the male dragonet irritably. "Come on! Dad isn't even here right now!"

"That necklace is _mine!"_ shouted the female dragonet. She looked a lot like Diligence, and Silverside realized that both dragonets were NightWings. The female dragonet had a purplish shade to her black scales while the male one had a dark green hint. "Just because Dad isn't here right now doesn't mean that you get to take it!"

The male dragon opened his mouth to retort before he caught sight of Silverside. His jaw fell open and he raised a claw to point to her. The female dragon's eyes followed to where his claw was pointing and soon she was aware of Silverside's presence as well. Her eyes widened and she leapt back, glaring at her.

"Who are you?! What are you doing in our house?!" she demanded. Her voice was shrill and loud, and it was certainly enough to make Silverside want to shrink under her heated black gaze. Silverside knew that she was angry with her, even if Silverside didn't understand what was going on. She was so _loud_. It reminded Silverside of Diligence whenever he was upset with her.

"M-My name is…it's…" Silverside couldn't bring herself to speak. Not while the female dragonet was glaring at her and had just shouted at her. It made Silverside feel anxious to the point where it felt as if she could barely manage speaking a single word. It felt as if claws were closing around her throat, preventing her from saying anything.

"Well?" the female dragonet growled. "What is it? Spit it out!"

"Cometchaser, calm down!" said the male dragonet. He gave her a glare that Cometchaser returned before he looked at Silverside with a more gentle look on his face. "Come on," he said. "We're not going to hurt you if you won't hurt us. Who are you?"

Swallowing her nervousness, Silverside quietly said, "My—my—my name is S-Silverside." She stared at the two dragonets, waiting apprehensively for whatever they'll do next.

"Good, so now we know your name!" Cometchaser said. "Now what are you doing here in _our_ room?"

Silverside blinked. "But—but isn't this _m-my_ room?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. The last thing that she remembered was that she and Diligence were going to move into a new house. This _should_ be _her_ room. But then what could possibly explain the presence of these two dragons here?

Of course, there was a possibility that he—

 _H-He wouldn't—wouldn't do that to me,_ Silverside thought. Diligence loved her. She was his _daughter_. _He l-loves me, h-he loves—loves—loves me, he loves me._ Why else would he be taking care of her for so long?

Cometchaser laughed. "Are you hearing her, Darkthought?" she giggled. "She thinks that this is _her_ room! I mean, come on! We've been living here ever since we were born and we've certainly never seen her befo—…." Cometchaser's voice seemed to escape for her and she widened her dark eyes. She stared at Silverside and Darkthought seemed to have gotten the same idea from the way he stared at her as well.

"No way," Darkthought murmured. He was trembling from head to toe, but there was an excited shine in his eyes.

"W-What?" gulped Silverside. She thought back to when Cometchaser said that they've lived in this home ever since they were hatched. What would that mean if Cometchaser had given her a look as if she _did_ know who she was?

"Give me my necklace!" Cometchaser suddenly shouted. She reached out for Silverside's necklace and she jumped back.

"I-It's not _your_ necklace!" Silverside cried. She lifted her talon and brushed her claws gently against the amethyst stone of her silver necklace. She didn't want to let these strange dragons take it from her. She didn't even know what they would do to it if they managed to get it. "It's mine—mine—mine."

Cometchaser narrowed her eyes and for one, terrifying moment Silverside thought that she was going to start yelling at her again. Silverside tensed up, bracing herself for sharp words that were going to pierce right through her scales.

But those words never came. Instead, Cometchaser said, "If you _still_ think that this room belongs to you, then go take a look around the rest of the house! I'm _sure_ that you'll just find things that are familiar to you."

However, before Cometchaser even finished, Silverside hurried past her and out of the door to the room. The door revealed a corridor with at least one door to the left and two other doors to the right. Silverside ignored those rooms and decided to head down the long passageway instead, which turned to the right at the end of it.

As Silverside came out of the corridor, the space widened into a full room. There was a lit fireplace at the center of the room and there was a small, circular dark brown table standing just a few feet away from the fireplace. Flattened beneath the legs of the table was a red carpet with golden lining.

Scroll racks were lined up against the wall and when Silverside looked to her left, she saw a wider, more rectangular table. There was a vase of fresh-cut flowers set down on a doily at the center of the table. Sitting against the wall was a chest and there was even a smooth countertop.

Almost at once Silverside knew that this was not where she was supposed to be. The biggest sign that gave that away were family portraits strung up against empty spaces on the wall. There were at least three that all showed changes in the family. One of them included Cometchaser and Darkthought, along with a single dragon who Silverside assumed must've been their father.

But everyone else in those portraits were not recognizable at all to Silverside. True, she wasn't introduced to very many dragons, but she knew that these dragons were strange and weird and that _they weren't her father_.

"She's our _statue_ , Darkthought!" Cometchaser shouted behind her. "You can't just tell me that that isn't TOTALLY BAFFLING AND WEIRD AND AWESOME AT THE SAME TIME!"

"I _am_ excited," Darkthought replied. "I'm just keeping calm about it."

"HOW COULD YOU KEEP _CALM?!"_ Cometchaser yelled.

Silverside flinched at the volume in Cometchaser's voice, but that seemed to be nothing compared to the kind of aching fear that she was feeling right now. As soon as Darkthought and Cometchaser came up behind her, she whipped around to look at them.

"I-I'm sorry—sorry," Silverside mumbled, avoiding their eyes. "I believe that—that—that I'm in the wrong place," she said. "If you can j-just direct me to Queen Constellation's palace, then she may help me find where I'm—I'm—I'm supposed to go."

Darkthought chuckled. "Oh, come on," he said. "I know you're an _old_ statue, but I was at least hoping that you were still aware of how much time had passed."

Fear crept up Silverside's back. "H-How much time _did_ pass?" she queried.

"It's been over three-hundred years since Queen Constellation's rule, you idiot!" Cometchaser answered. Then she and Darkthought continued to babble on, but hardly any of their words managed to reach to Silverside.

 _Three-hundred years._ Was that really how much time had passed ever since the last time she'd been conscious? That was, what, three thousand and six hundred months? Silverside wasn't sure. All that _she_ knew was that there surely must've been some kind of mistake. Diligence wouldn't have left her alone for that long. Her entire body started shaking.

The cold tendrils of dread gripped Silverside's stomach and started to pull on it. It felt as if someone had just drilled a hole right through her chest. It _hurt_. Why did the hole have to hurt so much? Why couldn't it just be a _normal_ kind of pain where it went away after a few seconds?

"Hey, are you alright?" Darkthought asked her.

"I-I'm sorry—sorry—sorry," Silverside whispered. "I'm in pain."


	5. Chapter Four

By the time Cometchaser's and Darkthought's father arrived, Silverside was curled up into a tiny little ball on the floor, wings wrapped around her body. Three-hundred years couldn't have passed so soon. It just couldn't have. How? Why? Silverside didn't know, but all she knew was that she just couldn't accept the fact that more time had passed than she thought.

Even as Cometchaser and Darkthought explained the situation to their father (What was his name? Silverside didn't know) right behind her, hardly any of their words reached her. Their words were nothing more than meaningless echoes that Silverside didn't care about. _Should_ she care about them? She wasn't sure.

Now if Silverside could cry, then she was almost certain that she would've burst out into tears right then and there. But she couldn't cry. It just wasn't something that she was able to do. Just like how she couldn't eat, drink, or sleep, Silverside lacked the ability to have tears flowing freely out of her eyes.

Moments later she felt big talons nudging her. "Get up," he said. His voice sounded familiar. In fact, his voice sounded almost exactly like Diligence's, but this one seemed gentler. But Silverside knew that this still wasn't really her father. Her father was long gone by now.

Despite that, it was still a voice that urged Silverside to get up and look right at him.

Steeling her resolve, Silverside unwrapped her wings around her and folded them neatly to her sides. She turned over onto her stomach, raising her head and looking directly at Cometchaser's and Darkthought's father.

He was a scrawny dragon and he was a little bit shorter than Diligence. He looked tired and he was slouched over, but there was a certain sparkle in his black eyes that comforted Silverside. His scales had a slight blue hint to it.

"Silverside, is it?" he asked her.

"Y-Yes—yes—yes," she responded quietly. She didn't know what to say next to him. How much did Cometchaser and Darkthought tell him? Did he expect her to say anything else?

It came as a relief to her when it was him who carried on the conversation. "My name is Assiduity," he said. "You don't need to explain yourself to me. My dragonets already explained everything to me."

Silverside only nodded slowly in response.

"I have a few inquiries to ask of you, if that's alright," Assiduity said. Once again, Silverside only nodded.

"So it's the necklace that gives you life?" he asked. He gently brushed one claw over the silver area of his necklace until he reached the amethyst stone. Silverside tensed at the touch of his claw.

"T-That would be—be correct, sir," Silverside answered gingerly. What was he going to do with _that_ information? Was he going to take her necklace away from her now? The thought of it brought worry to her. The last thing she wanted was to have the necklace removed again.

Fortunately, that wasn't what Assiduity did. Instead he only gave a small nod to her. "Got it," he said.

"So I _can't_ wear it?" Cometchaser complained behind him. Darkthought whacked her lightly with his wing and she bared her white teeth at him.

"Who enchanted it?" Assiduity queried. He went to go touch the amethyst again. Silverside stepped away from him and Assiduity lowered his talon.

"M-My—my father. Diligence," she uttered. The pain in her chest sharpened as she thought about him. He was gone and she was never going to see him again. What was she ever going to do without him?

Assiduity blinked at her. "Diligence?" he asked. "Hm...I think my friend brought up that name before. I'll need to ask him about it sometime soon."

Silverside didn't care about what relation her father might've had with Assiduity's friend. All she wanted was to have her father back with her. She wanted him to hold her and tell her that he was still here for you and that it would all be okay in this strange, strange world.

The thought suddenly struck her that she didn't exactly know just how _much_ changed since the last time she was sentient except for Queen Constellation's demise. She thought nervously about what could be waiting for her outdoors now. She remembered all of her excitement at the idea of finally stepping foot outside, but now she was unsure.

She remembered reading scrolls that described how gorgeous the world was. She remembered descriptions of lush green forests and how the leaves of the trees would turn into calm shades of amber and brown at some point during the year. She remembered descriptions of glistening white snow and the way they would crunch beneath your talons.

Silverside recalled reading about the roaring waves of the gray ocean and tides sliding up against the sandy coast. And what about the sight of the moons and sun over the towering mountains? That was something that Silverside sincerely wanted to see, too.

But for all she knew, those probably changed, too. The thought frightened her. What if she was never going to get the chance to see the outdoors the way that she always imagined it being?

"We're going to need to give you a room," Assiduity said. "You're going to need to stay _somewhere_ while you're here."

"You're...you're going to keep—keep—keep me?" Silverside questioned. She tilted her head at him. She didn't think that he would do something like that.

"Why not?" Assiduity asked. "I think it might end up being a bit of an interesting experience."

"Are we _sure_ this is a good idea?" Cometchaser blurted out. She tapped her claw against the floor, narrowing her eyes. "Maybe that necklace was also enchanted to make her kill us while we're sleeping!"

Alarm coursed through Silverside's body. Was that really what Cometchaser thought?

"Shut _up_ , Cometchaser," Darkthought said, rolling his eyes. "That's completely illogical. What kind of dragon would do that?"

"I don't know," Cometchaser shrugged. "I was only making a _really important suggestion_."

"Quiet, you two," Assiduity said. Cometchaser and Darkthought both fell silent, but the two continued to glare at each other. Silverside wondered if they were telepathically sending arguments to each other.

Before she could think more about the idea, Assiduity tapped her on the shoulder. Silverside jumped and looked at him curiously. "Let's go," he said. Then he turned away and started to walk to another destination.

Silverside hesitantly followed him back through the corridor. He soon stopped in front of one of the doors and opened it up, revealing a messy room with a single bed in it.

"I'm sorry that it's a little messy," Assiduity said as he headed inside of the room. Silverside followed him in. There was a table next to the bed, but otherwise those were virtually the only clean things within the room.

There was a long rectangular box sitting in the corner of the room with a smaller, more squarish box stacked on top of it, and right next to them was a closed wooden chest. There was no windows in the room, which Silverside didn't exactly mind as her old room didn't have windows either.

Two scroll racks stood against one of the walls, but the scrolls had apparently fallen out of their places. They were scattered on the floor and some were unrolled while the corners of others were torn.

Dust coated the floor of the room. Silverside brushed her talon against the floor to clear the dust off, but it felt as if none of it had even moved. Silverside began to wonder if there was multiple layers of dust covering the floor.

Besides that, the room was decent. Silverside could've done just fine without the bed, though, seeing as she didn't need it.

"This was supposed to be the guest room, but, uh, we don't really get very many visitors in the house," Assiduity said. Silverside thought that she could detect a hint of embarrassment in his tone of voice. Assiduity went ahead of her, going to clean up the scrolls. "I guess we just ended up neglecting the room. I'm going to clean it up if you want me to."

"N-No," Silverside mumbled, shaking her head. "It's fine—fine—fine."

So this going to be her room now, huh? Silverside didn't mind. It wasn't all that different from her old room, despite the fact that it was a little bit dirtier. She missed her old room, but being here in this room actually didn't feel quite so different. The fact that this room was _hers_ made her feel a little bit better.

At least _one_ thing here was hers.


	6. Chapter Five

That night, Silverside spent her time staring at the wall. She could hear snoring coming from Cometchaser's and Darkthought's room. She wondered who it was out of the two that snored because then she'll make a mental note to herself to ask them to stop. Truthfully, Silverside was getting rather annoyed. Diligence never snored.

She also made a mental note to herself to ask Assiduity if she could have any wood carving materials. She was already missing the texture of wood and the feeling she got whenever she worked on carving a piece. It brought her mind to a peaceful state and it gave her something to focus on, which was one thing that was basically nonexistent within this room.

It was hard to read in the dark without any candle, and Silverside wasn't quite sure if she could ask for a candle to work with. So she left the scrolls alone. She also tried clearing out the amount of dust that was settled on the floor of her room, but after fifteen minutes she gave up. Maybe there _were_ multiple layers of dust coating the floor.

Not willing to mess up the bed, Silverside instead just sat down while staring at the wall. Eventually, she found herself tapping her claw against the floor. And then soon enough, she was pacing back and forth in the room.

Seconds turned into minutes and minutes melted into hours. Silverside halted as she heard a door opening and the soft _thumps_ of talons. Then the door to her room opened, and standing in the doorway was Assiduity.

"Hey," he said gently. "Are you okay in there?"

Instead of answering his question, Silverside asked, "Can you get me some w-wood carving supplies?"

* * *

"Come on, don't you _eat?"_ asked Cometchaser as they were eating around the dinner table later that morning. They (with the exception of Silverside, of course) were all eating fresh hawks.

Silverside shook her head. "No—no—no," she replied. She didn't know what it felt like to eat food and she didn't really intend to. She still couldn't quite understand how dragons can consume another living organism and then later have it come out of them. She read in the scrolls about how tasty some foods could be and how much dragons _needed_ to eat.

But to Silverside, it was just unnatural.

Darkthought shrugged. "Your loss, then," he said, and then he continued on with his hawk.

"She's so _weird_ ," Cometchaser muttered. Assiduity shot her a look and Cometchaser quieted down.

Silverside tried not to feel too bothered by Cometchaser's comment, but she still had to quietly admit to herself that it caused some kind of small pain in Silverside's chest. It reminded her of her failed attempts to prove to Diligence that she _was_ capable of acting just like a normal dragon.

She continued to listen to Darkthought and Cometchaser talking. Both of them rapidly spoke to their father, who only gave slight nods in response.

"So, I was just like 'No way!' and Crevicecrawler was just like 'It totally happened'!" Cometchaser giggled. "And so then I said—"

"That's hardly relevant," Darkthought interjected. He lowered his hawk and gave Cometchaser a stern look. "If you ask me, Crevicecrawler was only begging for attention. I find it very unlikely that a dragon like _him_ could actually fight off three different thugs at once."

"Oh, shut up!" Cometchaser snapped. "You're going to ruin everyone's fun with that kind of attitude!"

Silverside saw Assiduity roll his eyes. She tilted her head at the sight. _I should look—look into that,_ Silverside thought. She wondered why dragons rolled their eyes like that. Of course, she understood that it probably wasn't because something was on the ceiling.

"Have you even _done_ your homework for school already?" Darkthought queried. He narrowed his eyes at Cometchaser. "Our professors assigned those papers to us before break. You had _plenty_ of time to finish it."

Before Cometchaser could come up with some kind of witty retort, Silverside asked, "School?"

Cometchaser and Darkthought stopped and looked at her. Assiduity looked at her in curiosity.

"Wait," Darkthought said slowly. "Have you _never_ _been_ to school?"

"No," Silverside answered. She looked at the ground. She knew that school existed and she knew what it was. She just never really got the chance to go to school. Mainly because Diligence wouldn't let her.

Cometchaser let out a laugh. "No _wonder_ why you're so dull!" she said.

Silverside held back feelings of offense. Surely she couldn't be _that_ dull in the head. Was she? She had to wonder if that was how Cometchaser saw her.

"Cometchaser, settle down," Assiduity said. He looked at Silverside and she raised her head to meet his eyes. "So, you've _never_ been to school?"

Silverside shook her head.

"Do you _want_ to go to school?" he asked.

She hesitated. School could be such a good opportunity for her, but at the same time she wondered if she would be welcome within the school. If everyone knew about her origins, then what would they think about her? Silverside certainly remembered that she still didn't receive any sign of approval from Diligence for acting normally and that now she never will.

If she had her journal now, then she probably would've agreed to going to school with other dragonets. Even if she was still absolutely lost, then she always would've had her journal to look back at just in case. But her journal had been lost and she wasn't going to recover it anytime soon.

Another worry that she had was if the other dragonets acted just like Cometchaser. Silverside had to admit to herself that Cometchaser was not only loud, but her attitude also wasn't the greatest. Cometchaser said quite a few things to Silverside that felt hurtful, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to go to school if every other dragon was going to do the same.

But the fact still remained that this was one of the things that Silverside wanted the most in life. She remembered spending hours and hours in her room just daydreaming about going to school. She often thought about impressing her teachers with how much she knew and earning good grades as a result. And because of that, her father would be proud of her and he'll say it right to her face that he was proud that she was his daughter.

Silverside made up her mind.

"Y-Yes," she stammered to Assiduity. "I want—want to go to school."

* * *

Assiduity told her to wait for a week before he went to go and enroll her in the same school that Cometchaser and Darkthought were attending. Before he went, Silverside asked him if he would _not_ mention her less-than-ordinary origins. Assiduity agreed, and to her relief, there has been no sign that he hadn't kept his word.

The day after that morning, Cometchaser and Darkthought went to school. Silverside wondered what they were doing while they were at school. Was there anything fun that happened while they were there? Silverside could only imagine until the time came for her to go to school.

After the two NightWing dragonets bid farewell to their father and left for school, Assiduity went to Silverside's room. After greeting her, he started to ask her a couple of questions, which she wasn't entirely comfortable with.

"Why don't you ever go outside?" he asked her.

Silverside felt startled at the question. That was a question that she didn't expect anyone to ask her. Wasn't the answer obvious anyway?

"You didn't—didn't—didn't tell me that I could leave," Silverside mumbled. Diligence told her that she couldn't leave the house without his permission. Wasn't it like that for every dragonet in a household?

"You know that you don't need to ask me to leave the house," Assiduity said. "Yes, some knowledge of where you're going to _go_ would be nice, but otherwise you really don't need to ask me."

Surprise inflated in her. She didn't need to _ask_ to leave? She could just exit the house whenever she wanted to?

Before Silverside knew it, she was bolting past Assiduity and rushed down the corridor. She came to a stop in front of the front door. She stared at the wooden door that seemed to tell her, " _I dare you to open me and come take a look at what's outside."_

She heard Assiduity stepping up behind her, and then Silverside twisted the knob and opened the door.

 _Sunlight_.

Sunlight poured into the room at once. After a lifetime of being surrounded by walls, it seemed blinding and wonderful at the same time.

Silverside stepped outside. She felt coarse stone beneath her talons. A stone path lead from the front steps until it came past the dark brown fences that surrounded the house. A single tree grew within the yard. Its brown branches curved elegantly and rust-colored leaves fell from the tree.

Silverside walked over to one of the fallen leaves and picked it up, holding it up against her eyes. It was exactly like the illustrations in the scrolls. Silverside tightened her grip and the leaf cracked. She dropped it and it fell gently onto the ground.

Birds tweeted and sang from the tree and a cold breeze blew past her. The bright sun warmed her scales and brought light to the world that Silverside desired to see ever since her earliest memories.

It was beautiful.

"So what do you think?" Assiduity asked her. He stepped up to her side, but Silverside hardly paid attention to him.

She knew that by now, tears would've been streaming out of her eyes and down her cheeks.

But once again, she couldn't cry.


	7. Chapter Six

The day finally came for Silverside to go to school. Needless to say, she was both excited and apprehensive. This was going to be such a new experience for her, and of course she didn't want it to turn out bad in any way.

From what she understood, the first day of school was about making a statement for yourself. You needed to tell everyone what you're like and try to leave a good impression. Silverside would've brought along a few wooden statues that she made just to show the class, but she still hadn't received any wood carving supplies from Assiduity. She assumed that he was too busy to really get her any, which she could understand. She just wished that she would be able to get back to carving wooden statues.

"Hopefully you have a good first day," said Darkthought when the three dragonets were all gathered in front of the door. "I'll wish you luck."

"Yeah, you're going to need it," Cometchaser snorted. Darkthought whacked her with his wing and Cometchaser shouted, "Hey, I was only joking!"

Darkthought rolled his eyes. "Anyway, Silverside, I hope that school doesn't turn out badly for you," he said.

Silverside nodded. "Thanks—thanks—thanks," she said. She smiled at Darkthought and he smiled back at her.

"I'm sure school would be enjoyable for you," Assiduity said as he came up to them. He looked at Silverside with a slight smile. "But if it doesn't, then you can come back here, okay?" he asked. "If you don't feel comfortable or anything, then feel free to return here."

"O-Okay," Silverside mumbled. She liked how gentle Assiduity was toward her. It was different from the treatment that she was used to from Diligence. But at the same time, it didn't feel quite right for Silverside. The way that Assiduity treated her was just so unfamiliar to her.

"Are we going to leave or what?" asked Cometchaser irritably. Her tail lashed along the floor.

"Yes, we were just about to leave," Darkthought replied. "It would probably be best if you kept that mouth of yours quiet the entire way. I don't think Silverside would like it if you were running your mouth off the entire way through."

"Okay, I do _not_ run my mouth off!" Cometchaser said indignantly. She raised her chin and continued speaking, but her words became lost to Silverside. They melted right into background noise that barely felt significant to Silverside. Right now, they didn't matter that much.

* * *

The trip to school felt amazing to Silverside. She still couldn't believe that the outdoors looked this beautiful. The sky was a pale blue this morning with white clouds floating peacefully against it. Amber and brown leaves coated the ground and as the houses of other dragons went past them as they continued on the dirt path to school.

Silverside listened as Darkthought and Cometchaser bickered with each other. Their words passed through her head, barely important compared to the refreshing sight of leaves being blown away by the wind or the feeling of rough dirt beneath her claws. She knew that to Cometchaser and Darkthought, this hardly meant anything to them. But to Silverside, this meant the entire world to her.

Well, really, it was _part_ of the entire world. She knew that there was still so much out there that she could explore. There were still towering mountains and lush jungles that she could explore, along with smooth expanses of sand and ice. She wondered if there would ever be a day where she gets to see such vast lands. From what she's seen in the time that she took to explore the outdoors yesterday, she saw that there was a single mountain that laid outside of the town.

She was especially interested in the ocean. Silverside didn't know if she was able to survive underwater, but she was _almost_ sure that she could 'breathe' underwater. From what she read about the ocean, it was an endless watery land full of mystery and adventure.

Of course, Silverside recalled that part of her appearance was based off of that of a SeaWing's. Diligence never really explained to her _why_ , but the way he spoke about it with such sharp bitterness in his voice told her that it was something that he didn't like to talk about. She was still interested in the story, but she didn't want to make her father feel uncomfortable.

Thoughts of regret crossed her mind as she realized that now she might not ever get to hear that story. But did it matter? Was it really important? It probably wasn't, but it still left an aching sense of curiosity in Silverside that might now never be satisfied.

But there wasn't anything that she could do about that now. The best she could do right now was try to move past that. She had a new opportunity here at school.

She was ready.

* * *

But not as ready as she thought she would be, apparently.

It wasn't that the school _looked_ bad. It was actually rather nice. Smooth stone walls made up the hallways and the ceilings were raised high above the ground. It was lit up by torches lined along the wall and a couple of papers that promoted clubs and school events were posted on a bulletin board. It wasn't the school's appearance that made her feel nervous.

But if she thought that Cometchaser was loud, then the school was even _louder_.

Students shouted and screamed at each other and the sound of it made Silverside's ears hurt. The students were a large mass of black and before Silverside knew it, she was separated from Darkthought and Cometchaser in the sea of dragonets.

Silverside tried to push past the students and make her way to where she was supposed to go. But wait, where _was_ she supposed to go anyway? She lost both of her guides within the few minutes that she arrived.

She started to feel queasy and nauseous. What was going on in the school? What were these students doing? What was _she_ supposed to do? Where was she supposed to go? Dragons surrounded her everywhere she went and it was nearly impossible for her to try and find her way around the school.

And now the other students were staring at her.

"Whoa, is she new?"

"She looks weird."

"Oh my gosh, is she a _hybrid?"_

A hybrid. That was what Diligence intended for her to look like. At first she felt proud to know that her appearance was unique compared to other dragons, but now she wished that she looked just like a normal NightWing. She stuck out in this crowd, and because of that so many eyes were looking at her and it was _awful_.

Silverside opened her mouth to try and say anything to these dragonets, but nothing came out. Not that it mattered anyway, as the other dragonets started bombarding her with questions about who her parents were and where she came from.

Her head started to hurt, and she quickly turned the other direction to get away from the group of dragons.

* * *

Silverside was ashamed to know that she lasted less than even two hours.

She managed to find her way to the school office and insisted that she should go back home. It took a while for her to convince them to let her go, but in the end, Silverside won and she was heading back to Assiduity's house. She was coming back with a little letter from the school that explained her early dismissal, and she grimaced as she looked at it.

When Assiduity opened the door, Silverside was looking down at her talons. She didn't look up to see his reaction to her sudden appearance and instead handed him the letter before going off to her room. There, she flopped down onto the bed and stared blankly at the ceiling.

She had noticed that there was a new box in her room but she tried not to pay too much attention to it. Maybe it was just something that Assiduity needed to store away in her room for a while.

She heard her door open and Assiduity walked to the side of her bed. Silverside raised her head to look at him. "Hi—hi—hi," she said.

"I'm sorry that your first day of school didn't turn out very well for you," Assiduity said. His gentle voice was thick with sympathy and Silverside felt a pang of regret. She wished that she didn't have to hear that kind of tone in his voice.

But after that, not a single word came out of either of them. It felt like a long, quiet eternity.

Finally, Assiduity said, "If you noticed the new box, then I suggest that you should go check it out. It's a gift for you." Then he turned and left, closing the door behind him. Silverside thought that it was nice of him to close the door.

But now she was curious about the box. She didn't think that it might be anything for _her_ , but she remembered asking Assiduity for wood carving supplies.

Silverside got off of the bed and headed over to the box. There was a note pasted on the top of it and she took it into her talons and read what the note said.

 _To Silverside,_

 _I'm sorry that I'm late in getting these materials for you. I got a little bit caught up with other business, so I didn't have much time to go out and look for these. I hope you like them._

— _Assiduity_

Almost at once, Silverside tore open the box and took a look at what was inside. It was the wood carving supplies that she had asked for!

Light bubbles started to form in her chest and her scales felt warm with delight. He really got this for her? He really did. He remembered that she asked for these and he _did_ get these for her.

From there, Silverside forgot about anything else that existed in the world. Her mind was now settled in some kind of peaceful area where nothing existed except for her and her new supplies. What happened at school never occurred, and as she started to go to work on a new piece, all felt right with the world.

She could just disappear into her work like that.


	8. Chapter Seven

After deciding to get away from school on the very first day, Silverside wasn't very eager to go back to school. She had the feeling that she was going to face some sense of ridicule and humiliation once she gets back. She didn't want to be teased by the other students at school.

Silverside knew that coming back to the house so early after school was a bad idea. Cometchaser made fun of her yesterday after she and Darkthought came from school. Darkthought was more sympathetic, which would be more of a comfort if Silverside _knew_ if he was being serious with it.

"Are you _serious?"_ Cometchaser had said after she learned what happened. They were standing in Silverside's room that afternoon, staring at her as if plants grew out of her ears. "You got _scared_ at _school?_ What kind of weirdo are you?"

"Shut _up_ ," Darkthought replied to Cometchaser. His voice was firm, but Silverside could tell by the look in his eyes that he was probably secretly teasing Silverside. Or was she just overthinking it? She swore that she could see the twinkle in his eyes that told her that he enjoyed this, but…

She paused that train of thought and started a new one. Was this why Diligence didn't want her to go outside? Maybe she still wasn't ready to be out there with all of the other dragons. Wasn't that why he kept her inside in the first place?

She was an artificial dragon pretending to be a real one. No, that wasn't it. She had _never_ been a real dragon and she probably never will be if she kept up this kind of behavior. To Diligence, she was not a real dragon no matter how much she wanted to be one. Did she even count as one to Cometchaser, Darkthought, and Assiduity? What would the other dragons think of her?

Silverside already made a bad impression on the first day. Apparently running away from school wasn't a normal thing that a normal dragon did. How should a dragon behave at school anyway? Maybe she should just never go back to school again.

But then wouldn't it be better if she was just known as the dragon who ran away once instead of the dragon who ran away and never came back?

"W-Well...I can try—try again," Silverside mumbled. She avoided Cometchaser's disbelieving gaze. Why did she look at her like that?

"Why do you want to try _again?"_ asked Cometchaser. "I mean, I don't know about you, but if _I_ got too scared by _school_ on the first day, then I'm not sure if I'd be ready to go back again."

Silverside shook her head. "No. I w-want to go back," she said. Maybe it won't be so bad the second time around. Maybe it'll be better now that Silverside was going to actually prepare herself for it. It was a possibility that Silverside _hoped_ would happen. If there was anything that she was good at besides wood carving, it was hoping.

Cometchaser rolled her eyes. "Pssh, fine," she said. "But don't blame _me_ if you run out crying again."

"Don't try to discourage her," Darkthought chided. "I think it's nice that she wants to try again."

"Oh, yeah, _sure_ ," Cometchaser snorted. "Whatever you say, oh great commander of the universe. You are truly almighty, and I am a fool for not recognizing your power earlier."

Darkthought flushed. "Now, I won't say that that isn't _true_ , but—"

"You'll do it anyway," Cometchaser said. A smile formed on Darkthought's face and he and his sister shared a laugh.

Silverside blinked at this sight. From what she'd seen, she had the notion that Darkthought and Cometchaser mildly disliked each other, as their actions toward the other were usually antagonistic. But then again, interactions between these two were very unpredictable.

Perhaps she's been reading their relationship wrong the entire time.

* * *

She struggled to keep herself calm when she arrived back at school the next day. It was still unnerving for her to see so many other dragons in one place. So many _adolescent_ dragons in one place, no less. Who came up with the idea of schools anyway?

Needless to say, Silverside stuck close to Darkthought and Cometchaser this time, determined not to lose them again in the ocean of black scales. She felt the eyes of so many other students on her and she heard them whisper as she passed them. Of course she had to be the one dragon who stuck out in the crowd.

"You know, it's not too late to turn back now if you're still feeling nervous," Darkthought said as he turned his head to look back at her.

"No—no—no," Silverside murmured, but her voice was easily lost within the cacophony.

"What?" asked Darkthought.

"N-No," Silverside replied, raising the volume of her voice. "I'm...not going to leave—leave—leave."

"If you say so, then," Darkthought shrugged. He returned his attention back ahead of him.

"What is our—our—our destination?" asked Silverside. She wondered where they were heading off to. Friends, maybe? Were they going to introduce her to their friends? Would they like her?

"Oh, we're leading you over to our class, of course. You might as well get to know your new teacher," Cometchaser answered. She glanced at Silverside with a gleam in her eyes. "Good luck trying to impress Professor Wisdomkeeper. She's _totally_ boring. She always acts as if she had a stick up her tail since she was four years old."

"Is she...is—is she mean?" Silverside queried gingerly. If her teacher was going to be mean, then she wasn't certain if she could deal with it for the rest of the year.

" _Very_ mean!" Cometchaser said. A grin spread across her face. "She'll be the bane of your existence! Do you know why everyone in her class _always_ turn their homework in on time?"

"Because...t-they are responsible students?" Silverside suggested.

"No, it's because they're _scared_ of her, dummy," Cometchaser snorted. "Rumors have it that if you miss one paper of homework, Professor Wisdomkeeper is gonna sneak into your house and kill you in your sleep!"

Silverside felt startled. Does she really do that? Were teachers allowed to do that?

"Okay, first of all, she's lying," Darkthought interjected. "Second of all, Wisdomkeeper is _strict_ , but she's no _murderer_. She isn't really that bad, I promise."

Silverside nodded slowly. "Okay—kay," she said.

But the twisting feeling in her stomach remained.

* * *

 **(( A/N: Hey guys! I'm sorry that this update got slower than usual. Real life just got draining for me and I had some problems to deal with before I got back to writing. Just to make it up to you, I'll write a special little chapter from Diligence's point of view at some point. How does that sound? ))**


	9. Chapter Eight

Coming face to face with Professor Wisdomkeeper was more intimidating than Silverside thought it would be.

Wisdomkeeper was old (Silverside guessed that she was probably somewhere in her eighties at this point) and bony, but that didn't stop her from striking some sense of fear into Silverside with her narrow face and sharp eyes. The silver scales next to Wisdomkeeper's eyes also wasn't much of a comfort to her.

Cometchaser and Darkthought both left as soon as Silverside entered the classroom, and as of now she wished that they were here with her right now. Professor Wisdomkeeper did not seem like the kindest dragon around, which Silverside didn't appreciate.

She avoided the older NightWing's gaze as Wisdomkeeper studied her. Was she reading her thoughts right now? The thought of it brought nervousness to Silverside. Was Wisdomkeeper even _able_ to read her mind? She could only hope that she couldn't.

To distract herself from her new teacher's eyes, Silverside took a look around at the classroom. There were torches mounted on the wall which brought a decent amount of light to the room, and there was a neat array of desks arranged in front of Wisdomkeeper's desk.

"You're an interesting dragonet," Wisdomkeeper said, tapping Silverside's snout with one claw. Silverside looked away from the classroom and looked up at Wisdomkeeper. "More interesting than any other dragonet I've had so far. Tell me, who are your parents?"

Silverside quickly tried to find the words that she was looking for. "Um...I...I...d-don't know," Silverside lied. She never lied before in her life, but then again, that might just be because that Diligence was the _only_ dragon that she could really lie to. And he was too intimidating for her to risk lying to him.

She wondered if Wisdomkeeper knew that she was lying. Maybe it could just be because the old dragon was good at detecting lies, she was reading her mind right now, or maybe Silverside was just that bad at coming up with a lie.

But even if she did know, maybe she would still let Silverside off easy for saying only _half_ a lie. Silverside always considered Diligence to be her father and so he was the first thing that she would think of when she thought about _father_. But she certainly didn't know who her mother was, if she could even call her mother. Diligence never spoke of the SeaWing who caused him to make Silverside.

"Right," Wisdomkeeper snorted. "I'll take your word for it."

Silverside held back a sigh of relief. "T-Thank you," she said quietly.

"But that certainly is an interesting necklace you have there, and I doubt that Assiduity is wealthy enough to have something like this and give it to you," Wisdomkeeper said. She eyed the silver amethyst necklace and Silverside covered the stone with her talons.

Wisdomkeeper narrowed her eyes. "Now where did you get it?" she asked her.

"I found...found it," Silverside responded quietly.

"Can I see it?" the NightWing asked.

" _No_!" Silverside cried immediately, and then she fell silent as Wisdomkeeper glared at her. "I...I mean...um...n-no thank you," she said in a nearly silent voice, looking at the ground. "I would prefer not to hand it over—over—over...p-please."

"I'm _sure_ you do," Wisdomkeeper said.

Before Silverside could say anything more, Wisdomkeeper looked to a desk at the front of the room. "You can go take your seat now," Wisdomkeeper said. "Class is about to start."

 _Right now—now?_ Silverside thought in alarm. Judging by the look in Wisdomkeeper's eyes, it was indeed _now_.

She quickly headed over to her desk and took a seat, and then she heard a gong ringing and the classroom started to fill with dragons.

* * *

 **A/N: I'm sorry that it's a bit of a shorter chapter today, but I hope that you enjoyed it anyway. :)**


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